A community that stays central to India, Indianness

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : This happened in December 2006. We were aboard a plane carrying the then prime minister Manmohan Singh and an Indian delegation to Tokyo. During the flight, the prime minister’s media adviser, Sanjaya Baru, came up to the gallery unexpectedly and told me: “PM is waiting for you." I had told Baru before boarding the flight at the New Delhi airport that I wanted to meet the prime minister.

I was led to the meeting room aboard this Air India special aircraft. Two of the five chairs in the room were already occupied. Singh was seated on the chair in the centre, and the editor of a well-known Punjabi publication was sitting on another.

They were conversing in Punjabi and Hindi. Upon seeing me, Singh broke mid-sentence, and asked me: “Yes, tell me?" I hadn’t meant to ask the PM any questions. However, the process of assembly elections was under way then in Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

There were reports in the newspapers that electoral rallies were being planned for practically every Congress politician who mattered, but the prime minister’s name was not on the list. So, I just said: “You must visit most, if not all, Sikh-dominated areas of Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. Palia in Uttar Pradesh, and Rudrapur in Uttarakhand have a large Sikh community.

You should also spend at least one night in Amritsar and offer prayers at the Golden Temple. This will not only calm the Sikhs but also take the wind out of the sails of separatists." Manmohan Singh had already made a few trips to Harmandir Sahib before as Prime Minister. Singh became pensive by the time I finished.

The room fell into an awkward silence. I took leave of the PM quickly. Some time later Baru approached me, smiling, and in his unique